What we do
Combining our three core specialisms with cross sector experience from a world-class team, we transform businesses through the built environment and enhance the way people work.
Manchester
The Children’s Society
To support The Children’s Society mission we recreated their London headquarters prioritising employee empowerment, health and well-being, transforming the space into an exciting and engaging space. Breaking free of the monotony of existing charity providers, to address wellness, learning and development, their new office puts employees at the very heart of the design.
Building brand connection through workplace design
The Children’s Society is a national charity working to transform the hopes and happiness of young people facing abuse, exploitation and neglect. The team wanted their new office to become a place that allows their employees to work in a smarter and more effective way, while remaining both inspired and engaged.
Split over two floors our design solution sought to balance the scale of the space with effective work practices. In looking to encourage greater productivity and collaboration amongst employees The Children’s Society team let us guide them through the process of moving from a more traditional style of working, to a more agile setting – giving staff the freedom to work in the ways that best suit them.
Design to support collaborative culture encouraged by leadership
Through a number of design workshops with the Children’s Society real estate team, we configured a variety of work setting options for employees so they can choose when, where, and how they want to work. This included some open plan work stations, some more casual lounge style settings, a number of private pods for concentration and project spaces creating a community-optimised space.
Satellite collaboration zones have been scattered throughout the floor plate – each with a unique design element, such as a feature ceiling element or ceiling hung acoustic panels that make each space feel more intimate and allow staff to feel at ease using these spaces while at the same time enhancing the overall aesthetics of the space.
Fostering a renewed sense of community
As a community led business it was important that their workspace created opportunities for people to come together, in addition to the workcafé area, staff can get together in the adjacent court yard space where teams, visitors and young people can come together in a comfortable space reflective of the brand’s open company culture. We kitted out this space with fun outdoor furniture and seating as well as a few ping pong tables which are another great tool to facilitate interactions.
Having delivered multiple not-for-profit sector workplaces we understood the need to incorporate multiple stake holders in the decision making process and from the very beginning we ensured that the relevant stakeholders were available at key milestone dates for regular workshops to review design and costs in order to have as much input as was required to make informed decisions.
Considerable effort was expended by the client, their professional team and ours to ensure that the design and cost proposal was as close to the project aims as possible. This significantly reduced the need for variations and design changes during the fit-out.
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